This is a shot of Gold Creek, below Gold Creek Falls in Golden Ears Provincial Park, near where two teens drowned May 10th, 2013.Stuart Davis
/ Vancouver Sun

Authorities in Ridge Meadows are scrambling to find two young boys last seen by friends this afternoon being swept over a waterfall at a popular swimming hole on Gold Creek.From the book 'Best Hikes and Walks of Southwestern BC.
/ PNG files

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RCMP dive team members were hampered by dangerous conditions Saturday in their search for a missing teenager presumed drowned after he and his buddy were swept off a waterfall near a popular Maple Ridge swimming hole Friday afternoon.

RCMP Inspector Davis Wendell said the current was too strong to send in a dive team or use a robotic camera to continue the search.

Instead, he said the crews will continue to monitor the currents and search the shoreline.

“It may not be tomorrow, it’s tough to say when the divers will be able to get the cameras in the water. But it’s just not safe by that water right now and we can’t put the lives of those heroes, the search and rescue team, at risk,” he said.

“We need to take this opportunity to remind the public that fast-flowing rivers are treacherous at this time of year.”

RCMP spokesman Sgt. Dale Somerville said earlier that the team had hoped to use the underwater camera the area of lower Gold Creek Falls to try to locate the body of the 19-year-old Surrey man.

He said the search was no longer considered a rescue operation and crews were just hoping to recover the teen’s body. He said the rapids, swollen with spring run-off, were extremely dangerous and survival was highly unlikely.

A helicopter found the body of his friend, a 19-year-old Delta man, late yesterday afternoon in the creek about a kilometre and a half from where the pair disappeared around 2 p.m. while swimming with a group of friends northwest of Alouette Lake in Golden Ears Provincial Park, Somerville said.

The two were in the popular swimming hole above the falls with a group of their friends when they were swept away by the fast-flowing water. The drop over the falls is only three to four metres high, but is dangerous right now with the high spring run-off, Somerville said.

“It’s quite popular and relatively safe in the summer,” he said. “This time of year it’s definitely a dangerous situation.”

“We have a full week of hot weather here in early May, before May long (weekend), with a snowpack of 80 per cent still, higher than that even,” Somerville said. “And it’s melting off the mountains in a very significant way and it’s created a perfect storm, for the lack of a better word.”

The incident comes after authorities warned residents and visitors in the South Interior to be vigilant near waterways this weekend as water levels rise.

Warmer temperatures and snow melt have increased flood risk and water levels are becoming higher and swifter in the Okanagan, Similkameen, Boundary, Kootenay and Thompson regions, according to a high stream advisory issued this week from the BC River Forecast Centre.

A statement from the B.C. government Thursday urged outdoor enthusiasts to use caution on or near all waterways.

“Flood waters can be fast-rising and fast-moving, carry large debris and make shorelines unstable,” the statement said.

Families are asked to keep their children and pets away from the edge of all rivers, creeks and streams.

The River Forecast Centre advisory says that while current river levels are below levels of concern, the weather forecast from Environment Canada is for steady increases in temperatures in the South Interior through Friday.

With temperatures forecast to drop slightly by the end of the weekend, river levels may ease slightly on Sunday.

Meanwhile, three outdoor recreation sites have been closed because of the spring run-off, according to a bulletin from the Ministry of Forests, Lands and Natural Resource Operations on Friday.

Grizzly Lake and Woodcock Lake in the Vanderhoof area and the Great Beaver Lake recreation site in Fort St. James are all shut down until further notice because of washed out roads.

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